I have been a fan of puzzles of many kinds for about 65 years; and have somewhere around 700 puzzle and Mathematical Recreation books in my library; along with hundreds of hand held or mechanical puzzles. I have no idea of how many hours I’ve spent enjoying puzzles, why I like them so much, or why I like some types of puzzles more than others. The Playful Brain is the first book I’ve come across that delves deeply into the various types of puzzles and the parts of the brain that become involved in solving them. I guess that love for solving puzzles made it a natural choice to become an engineer. It was almost as if I was just pursuing my love for puzzles that made Mathematics and other sciences something that was much more interesting than other studies. Much of my career in business was really just an extension to desire to solve problems. As an aside, I also spent over 20 years as a serious Birdwatcher. Without thinking about it; seeing 600 species of birds in North America, uses the same mental thinking, in going about learning how to identify, and then finding that many different birds.

The Playful Brain is an interesting combination of the efforts of Scott Kim, a very well-known designer of puzzles; and Dr. Restak Neuroscientist, and Neuropsychiatist that explains various types of puzzles and what part of the brain is used in solving them.

It is generally accepted wisdom that all parts of the body are greatly enhanced by actively using them. There is as much need for people to keep their minds active; particularly as lifespans are continuing to increase. I have found that, as the years advance, that the people who have interests that exercise and make use of their brains; tend to be happier and certainly are much less bored or boring than others who do not. Also, in spite of the fact that people spend a lot of time with hobbies or interests; are also much more able to deal with the problems or puzzles of life. Those people tend to take such things in life more as challenges than problems. And hence much more enjoyable. Maybe the title of this book should have been “A Playful Brain is a Happy and Healthy Brain”.